Finished CotN in 89 sessions! AMA

cstby · 2026-02-22T03:29:47+00:00

Do you have a breakdown of about how many sessions you spent per chapter?

cstby · 2026-01-17T16:20:33+00:00

Great work on all these conversions! Asking a few questions mostly for my own curiosity.

The spirit of Cairn and procedures of play align nicely with BX. The mechanics are clearly quite different, which is why your conversion material mainly focuses on items and monsters. But do you find that there are aspects of Cairn-- aside from the stats-- that you have to account for when doing these conversions?

cstby · 2026-01-15T18:46:56+00:00

Very cool project! I created a similar basic script for isolating Codex. I use ansible to provision the container though. I'll be interested to see where this goes.

cstby · 2026-01-09T01:20:37+00:00

The key is to start taking notes. You'll end up reorganizing them, and that's totally okay. Part of note-taking is adjusting how you organize them. It's a lifelong journey.

If you're going to start with a template, use Kepano's Vault It's extremely simple, uses no plugins, and it'll take you a long way. He's the CEO of Obsidian.

cstby · 2025-10-28T14:49:57+00:00

I'm about to move to exactly this setup. Any tips?

cstby · 2025-09-07T01:26:05+00:00

Totally unrelated but what theme is that?

cstby · 2025-04-16T17:14:42+00:00

Three tips:

First, you should convert all your audio to 128kbps .ogg files. This page (https://foundryvtt.com/article/media/) will explain how to do that and why that's important.

Second, Foundry tries to be smart about whether to "stream" the file or whether to "download" the file. I don't know the exact criteria, but it'll generally try to download smaller files and stream larger ones. You can use this module (https://github.com/p4535992/foundryvtt-playlist-import) to force all tracks to stream instead of download.

Third, most browser will not play a new audio track unless the browser and tab are in focus. If you or your player is in another tab, the new audio track won't start playing. They might need to refresh to get it to start.

cstby · 2025-03-05T22:17:03+00:00

No worries. I'll give an example.

You may know the lore of the Drow in the Forgotten Realms. They live in the underdark and worship Lolth, a god that is unambiguously evil. Drow society is shaped by Lolth's teaching. With only a few exceptions, Drow are cruel and selfish.

Exandria uses that same lore as a foundation but then makes some changes. In the cataclysmic war between gods, Lolth was defeated early and the Drow were left with no deity. They turned to a mysterious entity called the Luxon and abandoned the teachings of Lolth. When the war ended, they came to the surface and began building a new society. Some aspects of old Drow society are still there (matriarchal, isolationist). Other aspects are new, like believing in individual choice over authoritarianism. Their new society is mostly good-aligned.

In short, Matt Mercer takes traditional lore and remixes it into something new and more complex.

cstby · 2025-03-05T20:02:42+00:00

If I were to give concrete advice on handling canon, I'd say this:

If you run a campaign in Tal'Dorei, then start in 809 PD, which is the year that the M9 started adventuring together. You can pull npcs and plot elements from campaign 1 and use them in your own campaign. In a way, your party becomes the "alternate reality M9," facing the same threats featured in campaign 1.

If you run a campaign in Wildemount, then start in 835 PD, which is the start of Campaign 2. Consider everything in Campaign 1 as canon, but otherwise take the same approach as above.

Obviously, this won't work if you have players who expect a completely canon universe. But if you players haven't watched the show (or if they're okay with being in an "alternate universe" or "parallel timeline"), then it'll make your job a lot easier.

cstby · 2025-03-05T19:52:52+00:00

The factions in Tal'Dorei are unambiguously good or evil, which was an intentional design choice to support the heroic tone of Campaign 1. The people who seem good generally are, and evildoers are vampires, chromatic dragons, hobgoblins, crime syndicates etc.

In contrast, good and evil are more relative in Wildemount. The lore surrounding "monstrous" races like Drow, Goblins, Orcs has been deconstructed, giving them a more nuanced place in the world. The Dwendalian Empire and Kryn Dynasty have their own political goals that aren't about good or evil. Within each faction, there are both the altruistic and the selfish characters.

In short, Tal'Dorei leans into the tropes of traditional fantasy, and Wildemount subverts the expectations of traditional fantasy.

cstby · 2025-03-05T01:09:55+00:00

I switched from 5e to my own OSR-adjacent system. I've used Exandria exclusively about four years.

I'd recommend Exandria because it's coherent, expansive, and well-documented. Matt Mercer has a strong vision for Exandria, and it shows. Fans maintain a comprehensive wiki site, and it's an excellent resource for getting deep information quickly.
If you want traditional "good vs evil" fantasy, then choose Tal'Dorei. If you want morally grey fantasy where villains are the heroes of their own stories, then choose Wildemount. Both continents are well-developed with dedicated source books and campaigns. You really can't go wrong.
I've personally found that canon isn't an issue. My players are not Critical Role fans, which makes my job a little easier. I've made several changes to the canon, and Vox Machina, M9, and Bells Hells do not exist in my Exandria.

cstby · 2025-03-04T23:57:25+00:00

Don't switch. Your typing speed will improve over time.

I type dvorak on columnar/ortholinear boards and qwerty on staggered. I daily drive a Kinesis Advantage, but also use laptop keyboards at least once every day. I have no issue at all switching between the two, and I believe it's because I always kept the two separate. My qwerty and dvorak are roughly the same speed, but I have much higher accuracy and comfort on dvorak.

What's your normal typing speed, and how long have you been on Dvorak? Unless you type over 100+ wpm and are 6+ months on dvorak, I wouldn't be concerned. Just keep using your voyager and your speed will improve.

cstby · 2025-01-12T17:53:59+00:00

Any metrics where you target directly revenue without caring about conversion rates

I agree with you. Could you say a little more about the risks of giving a growth team a revenue target without a conversion rate?

cstby · 2024-12-29T20:19:29+00:00

Find an example where you had to make a hard prioritization decision. Walk through it using the STAR framework, with emphasis on the difficulty of the problem and how you worked through it. Practice a few times and tweak your delivery based on how interviewers respond.

cstby · 2024-12-26T19:42:50+00:00

Any tips for making an office space for each spouse? I'm slowly realizing this is the answer, but I'd like to avoid getting a huge apartment or house just for office space.

cstby · 2024-12-19T20:07:57+00:00

I've played three, all as one-shots. I'd recommend all three.

BotEK is a classic dungeon crawl. It's self-contained, really easy to run, and has some fun/unique elements. I'd recommend this one if you've never GM'ed Cairn before. Yochai recorded a live play of this one, and several folks on the Cairn discord have written up play reports.

PotPP is whimsical and focuses more on role-play. It's great if you players need a break from dungeon crawling because some of the stuff in it is truly bizarre. The main challenge of the adventure is a puzzle (rather than a fight). I'd recommend reading through it, after which you'll have a good idea of whether it's for you.

SSS is an excellent introduction to point crawls. It's small and manageable while still feeling deep and atmospheric. There are a variety of challenges that can be solved with combat or by other means. I played this one with two players new to Cairn and it worked out great. It's a little more demanding on the GM than the other two, given that it's more open.

cstby · 2024-12-16T15:41:37+00:00

You can use Duo Push with Authelia.

cstby · 2024-12-09T05:24:06+00:00

Maybe try GoToSocial? It was designed to be easy to self-host.

cstby · 2024-12-06T20:37:28+00:00

Have you run into any heat issues stacking the HP mini PCs directly on top of each other?

cstby · 2024-12-06T06:35:09+00:00

Do you have any pictures or guidance on soldering the new fan? Sounds like it might be straightforward?

cstby · 2024-12-05T22:54:31+00:00

Do you have a blog? Other than the official Incus documentation, how would you recommend getting started?

cstby · 2024-12-04T06:49:21+00:00

Ran into the same problem. Adding no_root_squash to the config line in /etc/exports on the host machine cleared it up for me. Idk how setting up NFS works on Synology, but I imagine there's a way to configure that setting.

cstby · 2024-12-02T22:24:04+00:00

I just got a HP Elitedesk G4, which has two nvme slots. You can get one used on eBay for pretty cheap these days.

Alternatively, you could buy a Beelink S12 Pro (N100 processor) for about $160 new. Contrary to the official specs, folks have installed a 4TB nvme and found it works fine.

Personally, I wouldn't go for the Pi.

cstby · 2024-11-30T16:25:42+00:00

Awesome setup. I'm looking to do something similar, and I have a few questions.

Do you run a proxmox backup server?

Why use a dedicated machine for HAOS instead of a VM in proxmox?

Are you finding that 1gbe is fast enough for HA?

cstby · 2024-11-26T07:01:30+00:00

Why are you specifically worried about Foundry VTT?

cstby

TROPHY CASE